On Wednesday, May 13 BJP president Rajnath Singh said the BJP will emerge as the single largest party and NDA will form the next government after votes are counted on May 16.

"The BJP will emerge as the single largest party. The BJP-led NDA will get a majority or will fall short by a small margin in which case I am confident that other political parties will support us," Singh said.

Singh refused to name the political parties, which are likely to extend support if NDA falls short of a majority.

"This is a part of our strategy. I will not say anything at all on this issue," he added.

The BJP-led NDA is trailing behind the Congress-led UPA in the projections given by different exit polls in the Lok Sabha elections.

The surveys shown by TV channels after the end of fifth phase of polling placed the BJP-led NDA not very far behind the UPA and the Third Front likely to get little over 100 seats.

The exit polls were proved wrong in 2004 Lok Sabha polls, with most of them projecting BJP-led NDA as the winner which did not turn out to be correct.

In 2004 elections, the Congress and its pre-poll allies got 216 seats against a projection ranging from 170 to 205 seats. The BJP-led NDA had secured 187 seats against the projections of over 240.